‘The hidden truth of the veil: it’s all politics’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“Britain, for all its faults, is not a society in which women are pestered or harassed as a matter of course. When we walk outside we have to contend with a tuneless wolf whistle at worst. For a woman here to argue that simply uncovering her face will automatically inflame the men around her to dangerous levels of lust is absurd: indeed, it is ostentatious modesty inflated to the point of vanity. To feel compelled to wear the full veil in Britain is the sexual equivalent of attending a Quaker meeting accompanied by three heavily-armed bodyguards.

“Behind this absurdity lurks something rather more worrying, however: the persistent agenda of a minority of Islamic fundamentalists to emphasise difference and push the boundaries of secular society. The arguments over Muslim women’s clothing have really been thinly disguised political battles, such as the 2002 attempt by the schoolgirl Shabina Begum to force her school to permit her to wear a cumbersome garment called the jilbab in contravention of school uniform. Begum’s brother, who was extremely vocal in court, was a reported member of the Islamic fundamentalist group Hizb-ut Tahrir….

“A clear, constant distinction between the sartorial obligations of private time and work time would surely relieve us all of mounting irritation, and deprive these wearisome attention-seekers of the substance they seem most eager to breathe in through the niqab: the oxygen of publicity.”

Jenny McCartney in the Sunday Telegraph, 3 December 2006

Ministers ‘failing to reach Muslims’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Official attempts by Whitehall departments to engage with the Muslim community following the 7/7 bombings are slated in a government-backed report published tomorrow, which says that conflicting messages are being sent out.

Bringing it Home, a report by the think tank Demos, which has been part funded by the Department for Communities and Local Government, claims:

“In the meeting rooms of Whitehall, ministers were assuring Muslim leaders of the need for partnership, but in press briefings they were talking of the need for Muslims to ‘get serious’ about terrorism, spy on their children and put up with inconveniences in the greater good of national security.”

Observer, 3 December 2006

The report (pdf) can be consulted here.

Posted in UK

Get to know Muslim neighbors, curb the paranoia

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“America has to learn that Islam is not only the world’s second largest religion, it also is the second largest in the U.S. and is growing at the fastest rate. More than three-quarters of American Muslims were born here. Thirty-three percent of U.S. Muslims are people who were born in America and converted to Islam. These Muslims are here to stay; they are not going anywhere. We all have to learn to live together with mutual respect and understanding.”

Sarwat Husain in San Antonio Express-News, 3 December 2006

Newly elected Muslim lawmaker under fire

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Keith EllisonThe first Muslim elected to Congress hasn’t been sworn into office yet, but his act of allegiance has already been criticized by a conservative commentator.

In a column posted Tuesday on the conservative website Townhall.com, Dennis Prager blasted Minnesota Democrat Keith Ellison’s decision to take the oath of office Jan. 4 with his hand on a Quran, the Muslim holy book.

“He should not be allowed to do so,” Prager wrote, “not because of any American hostility to the Koran, but because the act undermines American culture.” He said Ellison, a convert from Catholicism, should swear on a Christian Bible – which “America holds as its holiest book…. If you are incapable of taking an oath on that book, don’t serve in Congress.”

USA Today, 1 December 2006

See also Think Progress, 30 November 2006

In U.S., fear and distrust of Muslims runs deep

Posted on by Bob Pitt

When radio host Jerry Klein suggested that all Muslims in the United States should be identified with a crescent-shape tattoo or a distinctive arm band, the phone lines jammed instantly.

The first caller to the station in Washington said that Klein must be “off his rocker.” The second congratulated him and added: “Not only do you tattoo them in the middle of their forehead but you ship them out of this country … they are here to kill us.”

Another said that tattoos, armbands and other identifying markers such as crescent marks on driver’s licenses, passports and birth certificates did not go far enough. “What good is identifying them?” he asked. “You have to set up encampments like during World War Two with the Japanese and Germans.”

At the end of the one-hour show, rich with arguments on why visual identification of “the threat in our midst” would alleviate the public’s fears, Klein revealed that he had staged a hoax. It drew out reactions that are not uncommon in post-9/11 America.

“I can’t believe any of you are sick enough to have agreed for one second with anything I said,” he told his audience on the AM station 630 WMAL (http://www.wmal.com/), which covers Washington, Northern Virginia and Maryland

“For me to suggest to tattoo marks on people’s bodies, have them wear armbands, put a crescent moon on their driver’s license on their passport or birth certificate is disgusting. It’s beyond disgusting.

“Because basically what you just did was show me how the German people allowed what happened to the Jews to happen … We need to separate them, we need to tattoo their arms, we need to make them wear the yellow Star of David, we need to put them in concentration camps, we basically just need to kill them all because they are dangerous.”

Reuters, 1 December 2006

FBI pays $2 million to US Muslim in terror-suspect case

Posted on by Bob Pitt

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has agreed to pay Oregon lawyer Brandon Mayfield $2 million as part of a settlement for wrongfully arresting him in connection with the 2004 Madrid terror attacks.

The New York Times reports that the FBI also apologized for its actions and agreed to destroy all materials collected during its electronic surveillance of Mr. Mayfield and secret searches of his home and office. Mayfield is also allowed to continue his lawsuit that challenges the constitutionality of the Patriot Act. He charges that the antiterrorism law violates the Fourth Amendment because is allows for government searches without first establishing “probable cause” of a crime.

Mayfield, an American-born convert to Islam, was put under government surveillance after the FBI mistakenly linked him to the March bombings. He was arrested in May 2004 and held for two weeks as a terrorist suspect, despite evidence from the Spanish government that he was not connected to the attack.

“The horrific pain, torture and humiliation that this has caused myself and my family is hard to put into words,” said Mr. Mayfield, an American-born convert to Islam and a former lieutenant in the Army.

“The days, weeks and months following my arrest,” he said, “were some of the darkest we have had to endure. I personally was subject to lockdown, strip searches, sleep deprivation, unsanitary living conditions, shackles and chains, threats, physical pain and humiliation.”

Christian Science Monitor, 30 November 2006

‘Islam and Christianity? There is no comparison’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“You’ve undoubtedly heard the expression, ‘comparing apples to oranges’. The expression is used when someone attempts an invalid comparison of things. This is exactly what today’s Christian-bashing world does when it attempts to compare militant Islam with biblical Christianity. The two are clearly incomparable.

“Recently, the stark differences between Mohammed’s Religion of the Sword and Christ’s Golden Rule have been clearly displayed. When Amish school children were murdered in Pennsylvania, prayers and forgiveness were the order of the day. How different was this from flying ‘fatwas’ and exploding suicide bombers, which our world has become accustomed to expect every time some Muslim gets looked at sideways?”

Florida Baptist Witness, 30 November 2006

‘Shocking secrets of sharia courts’

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“A shocking report today exposes the grip Islamic law now has on British society. Honour killings, polygamy, child marriages and mutilation are revealed in the study by Islam expert Dr Patrick Sookhdeo, director of the Institute for the Study of Islam and Christianity. The findings come after the Daily Express told yesterday how secret courts are meting out Islamic justice and creating a two-tier legal system.

“The report outlines areas where hardline sharia law conflicts with Britain’s justice system and warns of attempts to include parts of Islamic law in British law. It says: ‘Since sharia has some regulations which relate to non-Muslims such changes in British law could impinge on non-Muslims too. They would affect individual human rights of freedom of choice and the religious freedoms of both Muslims and non-Muslims’.”

Daily Express, 1 December 2006

As we’ve noted before, you’d have thought the media would steer well clear of Sookhdeo since this self-proclaimed “expert” on Islam got the Sunday Telegraph into legal trouble by calling for one of the most reputable English translations of the Qur’an to be banned (see here, here and here). But there is evidently no end to the demand for ignorant bigots who are prepared to feed the anti-Muslim frenzy of the right-wing press.

A school with a progressive attitude to the veil

Posted on by Bob Pitt

Last month Tony Blair said the veil row was part of a necessary debate about the way the Muslim community integrates into British society. He said the veil was a “mark of separation” which makes people feel uncomfortable. But Charlie Taylor, deputy head of Turton high school arts and media college, Bolton, does not share the politicians’ concerns. “I should know about face covering,” he laughs from behind a generous beard. “Communication is more than just facial expression; mostly you know whether pupils are taking something in from what they say and how they say it. We don’t see the veil as an issue here.”

For the past two or three years, a small but growing number of Turton’s female Muslim sixth formers have chosen to wear the niqab – which covers the face – and staff have chosen to respect their choice. These students are not retiring violets. Indeed, they are among the feistiest students in the sixth form. Like many young women who have taken up the niqab in the UK, they wear it proudly, an outward sign, they say, of their deep faith, and a statement of their cultural identity.

Turton, in the largely white, northern suburbs of Bolton, close to the Pennine foothills, is the last place one would expect to find students wearing the niqab, given that most schools in northern towns, even those with a largely Muslim intake, allow students to wear the hijab (the headscarf), but stop short of the veil. But Turton’s sixth form of 500 draws from diverse cultures, and John Porteous, the head, is proud of the mix: “I think, increasingly, Asian heritage students and particularly Muslim girls are attracted to the sixth form because they find it a sympathetic place to be.”

All of Turton’s upper sixth Muslim girls – whether veiled, headscarf wearers, or bare-headed – who agreed to speak to The TES regard themselves as fully integrated into British society. They also respect each other’s choice of dress, believing it expresses their differing piety. They were all taking A-levels and plan to study for careers ranging from optometry to politics. Their dress, they say, is about their faith and cultural identity, not about wanting to be separate.

TES, 1 December 2006

Fascists jump on ‘sharia law’ bandwagon

Posted on by Bob Pitt

“The BNP says make no mistake: the spread of Sharia law into the urban badlands where police have lost control of the streets is the thin end of the wedge for first creating a parallel legal system for Muslims, who will then consider themselves above the law of the land, and then attempting to terrorise the rest of the country into accepting its imposition on them.”

BNP news article, 30 November 2006

Rally against the BNP in Barking and Dagenham

Unite Against Fascism (UAF) is calling a counter rally and protest against the fascist British National Party’s (BNP) rally in Central Park on Saturday 9 December. We need as many anti-fascists as possible to show opposition to the BNP. The BNP will be hoping that the acquittal of Nick Griffin and Mark Collett earlier in November will galvanise their activists. The BNP has 12 councillors in Barking and Dagenham.

Further details on UAF website.